I don’t know about you, but I don’t often struggle in knowing what is most important. Where I struggle is doing what is most important.
As a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, I thank God that he has made what is most important plainly known. Jesus clearly tells us that the most important commands of God are two:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”
Matthew 12:29-31 (emphasis added)
Relationship with God
The command to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength is plain. And it addresses the ways God would like me to grow in my relationship with him.
- Heart – my passion, my affections
- Soul – my will, volition, my very being
- Mind – my knowledge and understanding
- Strength – my actions and efforts
This, of course, is not any new teaching. But it is clearly what God wants from me in my relationship with him. It affects every aspect of my life from study and thought to what I do and where my heart is focused. And it requires something of me.
